Trade Rumblings

With the trade deadline quickly approaching (2 weeks away), let's take a look at some teams/players to keep an eye on.

Orlando Magic: Dwight Howard is the BIG name being thrown around right now. Do the Magic keep him, do the Nets get him, do the Lakers get him, is there REALLY a mystery team?

From what I've seen, the Magic (despite being consistent with "we want to keep him" messages) are going to trade him. The most logical team seems to be the Nets since according to most sources, the Magic don't see that large of a difference between Lopez and Bynum, and with Lopez, they also get a bevy of draft picks.

Monta Ellis The Warriors are steadfast in their saying he will not be traded (except for Dwight), but all signs point to this being a story to watch. Lee is also a potential trade candidate. He's not playing UP to his contract, but it's not an egregious contract anymore. He's played real well this year.

Boston Celtics While the Celtics have received plenty of offers for Ray Allen, according to Wojnarowski, the most likely Celtic to be moved is Paul Pierce. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if any Celtic (KG, Allen, Pierce, Rondo) were traded. I think barring some sort of 2-week resurgence, Ray Allen is going to be moved.

Steve Nash Portland seems to be the most likely destination given all the chatter, but Phoenix says they won't trade him unless Nash demands a trade. Nash is far too classy to do that, but Phoenix should look to make that deal as it doesn't look like he will be re-signing with them at seasons end.

Michael Beasley It seems like the T-Wolves are open to moving Beasley. Smart, considering he likely isn't in their future plans and his stock is relatively high. The Lakers rejected a trade offer of Beasley for a 1st round pick, but that's more due to the fact that the Lakers are over the salary cap and would essentially be paying double Beasley's salary. I do think that they could potentially get a 1st rounder for him (think Sixers)

Sixers The Sixers may not have been in trade discussions with anyone, but they have a LOT of young pieces and aggressive new ownership. There is a shot that they package some of those pieces and get a major piece to make a run this year/in the future. They will not, however, mortgage their future for this season. They could be a sneaky player in the Dwight Howard talks.

Lakers I wouldn't be shocked (barring Kobe) if anyone got traded from this team. Keep an eye on Pau Gasol, he is unhappy and is still a top-20 player in this league and he can be had. Smart GM's will realize this and look to make a move (Daryl Morey of Houston loves him). Rumors of a Rondo/Pau swap are greatly exaggerated, by the way.

Jazz As crazy as it sounds, the Jazz would be willing to move Big Al or Milsap. With Favors/Kanter waiting in the wings, the Jazz would be willing to move one of those 2 in order to gain a point guard (Rondo??) or a wing player.

JJ Hickson JJ Hickson is open to being traded and actually would prefer it. He's in a walk-year so it's likely he is moved for the right deal. Still a very talented player in my opinion.

Spurs Strategy

Last night the Spurs got blown out by 40 at the Rose Garden. If you don't look at the box-score, that looks like an incredibly impressive win for the Blazers, especially considering they are experimenting with Jamal Crawford as their PG given the fact that Ray Felton has been faltering as of late.

When you look at the box-score (or if you watched the game), you would realize that the Spurs didn't have Manu (injured again) and rested both Duncan and Parker. The DNP on the box-score? Rest. Whether or not you love the move, you have to respect what Pop is doing. He realizes that he's got aging stars and resting sacrificing wins to preserve them. A lot of people questioned how many minutes Parker got the night before last given the big Portland game, but those questions were answered last night. I'm sure he (along with some beat writers) will spin it as Pop giving his rookies a chance to play while resting his stars, but make no mistake, he gave the win away and was perfectly fine doing so.

One thing you cannot deny, though, is that when the Spurs are playing well, they are an extremely dangerous team. The fact that they had won 11-straight leading into this game is part of what allowed them to do this. It was an interesting move and for the record, I'm totally on board with it.

Side note: Ray Felton was notably displeased with his move to the bench in favor of Jamal Crawford, however Jamal out-played him as the starter making the same number of FG's in less attempts and more 3's in less attempts. Each had only 1 turnover, but Jamal played 9 more minutes than Ray. Crawford also pitched in 8 assists and 4 rebounds. I don't think this game will solidify Crawford in the starting role given the Spurs handed the Blazers the win, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

2/15/2012 Running Diary

7:12 pm [PHI @ ORL] No shock there as Orlando looks to get Dwight going early on. Richardson with a 3, he now has 5 of the Magic’s 7 points.

7:15 pm [PHI @ ORL] Man what a great story Lavoy Allen is. Just a random thought.. (P.S. Hell of a fast break defense there by Lavoy Allen)

7:19 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers are NOT defending the 3 point well. That’s usually a staple of their defense. Magic shooting 75% from downtown early. Out to a 15-6 lead.

7:20 pm [PHI @ ORL] That’s about as great a start as you could ask for if you’re a Magic fan. P.S. 10 minutes till LINsanity.

7:23 pm [PHI @ ORL] Very sloppy start for the 76ers as Orlando now has a 17 point lead late in the 1^st qtr. Meanwhile in the Spurs/Raptors game, RJ hits a 3 to put the Spurs up 8.

7:27 pm [SA @ TOR] Barbosa with no ill feelings towards his old rival, missing a 3. It’s just like old times!!

7:31 pm It’s time for LINSANITY! Also, I cannot get over announcers referring to Matt Bonner as the red rocket. Kills me every time.

7:33 pm [PHI @ ORL] Huge 3 by Lou Williams to close out the quarter allowing the Sixers to draw within 13 and weather an otherwise horrific quarter. 29-16 Magic at end of one.

7:34 pm [SA @ TOR] Spurs lead 25-17 at the end of the first quarter. It’s impossible to watch a basketball game on Toronto’s court. It’s hideously ugly.

7:39 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers, just as I had thought, are back in it, and have cut the lead to 8. Meanwhile the Spurs continue to pull away from the Canadians.

7:41 pm [DET @ BOS] Boston and Detroit are underway at the Garden.

7:41 pm [SAC @ NYK] Andddddd heeeerreeee weeee goooo. Linsanity at MSG. Whatcha got Kings?!

7:44 pm [SAC @ NYK] Lin! First basket of the game and it's an And1 for Jeremy Lin. Garden is fired up.

8:00 pm Couple things from the past 15 minutes: Demarcus Cousins looks a lot slimmer. He needs to learn how to finish better at the rim though. Lin literally had a play where he just ran around then hit a layup. Its like a playground for him out there. Kings are standing around watching Jeremy Lin early on. Leads to a 10-0 run for the Knicks. Kyrie Irving is carving up the Pacers defense in his return from his concussion.

8:07 pm [SAC @ NYK] Hey Tyson Chandler, shave your freaking beard. End of the 1st at the garden. Nothing stands out other than Knicks are hitting their shots (due in a large part to their superior ball movement thanks to Lin) and Kings are forced into taking tougher shots and are missing them.

8:13 pm [SAC @ NYK] The fans at the garden are booing Kings rookie PG Isaiah Thomas purely because of his name. STAY CLASSY, NEW YORK!

8:34 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers are chipping away at this lead. Now have it to 6 late in the 3rd qtr. Ryan Anderson is having a ridiculous game from behind the arc. Making a case that he's gonna win the 3-pt contest next weekend.

8:45 pm [SA @ TOR] Looking like Spurs will get this win. Do people realize they are making a run at the Thunder for best record out west?

8:52 pm [PHI @ ORL] It's a shame the Sixers didn't have Tony Battie available to defen---WAIT WHAT.

9:11 pm [IND @ CLE] Kyrie and co. are up 20 points on Indiana. This is a bad couple days for Indiana. Blown out by the Heat last night and now getting white-washed by a mediocre Cleveland team.

LINsane!

I stand by my feeling that he is vastly overrated and will not continue to do this in the long run, but I am certainly enjoying this as a basketball fan. This is awesome to watch on every level. I'm not a fan of the Knicks, nor am I fan of New York sports in general, but this city is a basketball city at heart and when the Knicks are relevant and have a guy that draws this much energy from the crowd, it's just flat out fun to watch.

Happy VaLINtines Day, all.

Kyrie Irving

I don't think people are paying proper attention to what Kyrie Irving is doing this season. Let's take a look at some of his numbers:

29.8 minutes per game

49.2% FG %

41.3% 3-pt FG %

83% FT Shooting

18 ppg

5.1 apg

3.5 rpg

0.8 spg

3.2 turnovers per game

PER 21.62 (Top 25 in the league)

The kid is 19 years old and putting up these numbers. He is doing it on a TERRIBLE Cavs team with limited talent surrounding him and has them hovering around the 8 seed (albeit in the awful eastern conference). Also you have to remember he largely didn't play basketball last year at Duke, as he was injured nearly the entire year. He isn't an all-star yet, but he's well on his way to being one. Those numbers aren't yet on par with a Chris Paul or a Derek Rose but he's certainly around the Tony Parker/Deron Williams zone. Again, I repeat, at 19 years old. To compare that to someone like Deron Williams in his rookie year, Kyrie is MILES ahead of him. In Williams rookie year ('05-'06) he finished 205th in PER. Kyrie is currently 25th. Deron had more talent around him on that team and has the same minutes per game that Kyrie is getting this year. He averaged:

10.8 ppg

4.5 apg

2.4 rpg

42% fg %

41% 3 pt fg %

1.8 turnovers per game

PER: 12.42

Kyrie out performs him in nearly every category, except turnovers per game. That's largely because Kyrie is asked to do far more for his team than Deron was asked to do for his. That also effects the PPG and APG difference between the two, but the PER tells the story.

Kyrie is doing something special this year and it's worth taking notice. He's actually made me tune into Cavs games to watch what he's doing.